newuser Posted May 20, 2007 Share Posted May 20, 2007 I am a noob and have no idea what the difference is between the HF and LF binding posts on the back of my new RB-61 speakers. I bought a Yamaha receiver, two RB-61 bookshelf speakers and an RW-10d subwoofer. Should I connect the speaker wire from the receiver to the HF or LF binding posts on the back of the RB-61 speakers? Thanks ahead of time! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wuzzzer Posted May 20, 2007 Share Posted May 20, 2007 Are they connected by a metal jumper? As long as they are, it doesn't really matter which ones you connect them to. Some people remove the jumpers and separately amplify the high frequency and low frequency sections. Or some people run two sets of positive and negative cables from the amp/receiver and split them between the HF and LF sections. Most people have good results just leaving the jumpers in place and hooking up the wires to either the HF or LF sections. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IndyKlipschFan Posted May 21, 2007 Share Posted May 21, 2007 wuzzzzeer... all correct, more of a European thing of using two wires..... Klipsch does NOT reccomend bi amping their spakers under any circumstance.. (I am not speaking for them... we have just talked about this 1000 times on this forum.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Klipsch Employees Trey Cannon Posted May 22, 2007 Klipsch Employees Share Posted May 22, 2007 The answers you received are right. FYI: that info is in your owners manual. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MatrixDweller Posted May 23, 2007 Share Posted May 23, 2007 I have the RB81's which have the same dual binding post configuration. I noticed that the straps connecting the HF and LF posts look fairly low quality. The look like nickel plated something (hoping it was copper and not steel). Why would Klipsch use such junk on the flagship RB81. The RB75 uses something a lot better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sivadselim Posted May 23, 2007 Share Posted May 23, 2007 I noticed that the straps connecting the HF and LF posts look fairly low quality. The look like nickel plated something (hoping it was copper and not steel). Why would Klipsch use such junk on the flagship RB81. They are more than sufficient to do the job they're supposed to do, which is to simply transfer the signal all of 2 inches. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay481985 Posted May 24, 2007 Share Posted May 24, 2007 I have the RB81's which have the same dual binding post configuration. I noticed that the straps connecting the HF and LF posts look fairly low quality. The look like nickel plated something (hoping it was copper and not steel). Why would Klipsch use such junk on the flagship RB81. The RB75 uses something a lot better. copper corrodes in about a year to ugly not so conductive copper oxide. Just look at brand new pennies and pennies a year old. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
colterphoto1 Posted May 24, 2007 Share Posted May 24, 2007 I am a noob and have no idea what the difference is between the HF and LF binding posts on the back of my new RB-61 speakers. I bought a Yamaha receiver, two RB-61 bookshelf speakers and an RW-10d subwoofer. Should I connect the speaker wire from the receiver to the HF or LF binding posts on the back of the RB-61 speakers? Thanks ahead of time! no one reads the owner's manuals, that's why I have a job. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MatrixDweller Posted May 24, 2007 Share Posted May 24, 2007 I would have thought Klipsch, catering to audiophiles, would have used gold plated copper binding posts and gold plated copper straps. I was unimpressed by the nickel plate and was hoping it was rhodium. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mas Posted May 24, 2007 Share Posted May 24, 2007 I have the RB81's which have the same dual binding post configuration. I noticed that the straps connecting the HF and LF posts look fairly low quality. The look like nickel plated something (hoping it was copper and not steel). Why would Klipsch use such junk on the flagship RB81. The RB75 uses something a lot better. I would have thought Klipsch, catering to audiophiles*, would have used gold plated copper binding posts and gold plated copper straps. I was unimpressed by the nickel plate and was hoping it was rhodium. Keep digging the hole deeper... [:|] * There's the real problem! You reap what you sow... _____________________________________________________________________________________________________ Electrical Conductivity chart. (the higher number, and hence the lower chart position is better!) 0.109 106/cm Osmium Os 76 0.116 106/cm Indium In 49 0.137 106/cm Ruthenium Ru 44 0.138 106/cm Cadmium Cd 48 0.139 106/cm Potassium K 19 0.143 106/cm Nickel Ni 28 0.166 106/cm Zinc Zn 30 0.172 106/cm Cobalt Co 27 0.187 106/cm Molybdenum Mo 42 0.189 106/cm Tungsten W 74 0.197 106/cm Iridium Ir 77 0.21 106/cm Sodium Na 11 0.211 106/cm Rhodium Rh 45 0.226 106/cm Magnesium Mg 12 0.298 106/cm Calcium Ca 20 0.313 106/cm Beryllium Be 4 0.377 106/cm Aluminum Al 13 0.452 106/cm Gold Au 79 0.596 106/cm Copper Cu 29 0.63 106/cm Silver Ag 47 Heaven forbid they use that nasty old copper. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UFObuster Posted May 25, 2007 Share Posted May 25, 2007 I would have thought Klipsch, catering to audiophiles, would have used gold plated copper binding posts and gold plated copper straps. I was unimpressed by the nickel plate and was hoping it was rhodium. No, actually, it would have been much better if they had used Unobtainium for the binding posts and straps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BLSamuel Posted May 25, 2007 Share Posted May 25, 2007 Klipsch catering to audiophiles would probably more accurately be described as catering to music lovers. I suspect PWK showed many audiophile types his famous BULL@^#% button..... (can we add an old english font to the forum editor - maybe I'm using the wrong editor) Loudspeaker design is a series of compromises, especially to be affordable enough that real people can actually afford to buy them. One of the compromises made for the RB-61 was to use something less than gold plating on the binding straps and binding posts straps as the engineers (uh, extremely highly trained and talented experts in their field) determined that gold plating on the RB-61 would be superfluous on this speaker, no real sonic value, more a marketing decision spent the money where it'd improve the sound or kept the cost down a couple of $. Dressing up a Chevette won't make it a Corvette or even a reasonable fascimile thereof no matter what you do to it. Klipsch in my mind has never catered to audiophiles, but more to music lovers and for that we should all be thankful. Many audiophile" companies probably gold plate most if not all of their binding posts and straps and I suspect in a lot of cases the results being lower in quality than the RB-61 binding posts. While I consider Klipsch products to be "high-end" and worthy of "audiophile" status, they're first and foremost devoted to music (and film soundtracks of course) and are much better than many so called "high-end" and "audiophile" products that cost much more. Um, the RB-61 is probably not quite Klipsch's "flagship" model - ever heard of the Klipschorn? Or Belle, or La Scala, or Cornwall, or Heresy, or... . but probably one of the best, if not the best, options available for the price And now this new model called the Jubilee I'm not sure I'd heard of until a couple of weeks ago... Please don't read the manual, I think Colter really digs his job..... but do take a look as I'm sure they don't write 'em just for fun Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BLSamuel Posted May 25, 2007 Share Posted May 25, 2007 Not being an engineer (though I considered it at one time), or chemist, or physicist, isn't the biggest benefits of using gold plating, while a very good conductor, on audio connections mainly to prevent corrosion and oxidation and other such nasty things? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay481985 Posted May 25, 2007 Share Posted May 25, 2007 BTW the flagship model is technically the RF-83 from the Reference series.... I say it proud since I own a pair. I think the Heritage although the real flagship models are in a different class of it's own. Sorta like Ferrari has the 575, now 599 but the enzo is technically the flagship but they only have it every ten years... Also yes, gold is actually lower in rate of electron loss (be it heat, electrical, etc) then copper and silver. What is actually funny is aluminum has the best energy dispersion per weight since copper and silver weigh alot more..... but gold is used by everyone including the term every company likes to say NASA (cause it is space age) because gold is non corrosive in most instances.... Gold is one of the few elements that are found in pure solid elemental state (gold veins in rocks) and the fact that gold can be plated through electrolysis or even be hammered down to very small instances that it actually become transparent (think gold windows that actually use very very thin layer of gold to block out infrared light to prevent buildings from becoming too warm) or be used as decoration like gold leaf. There is though one way that gold can corrode, if exposed to mercury. Gold and mercury will bind together and become rather toxic for humans if they wear it. So if you have a mercury thermometer, take off you ring for if it breaks....... Also that was also a method for extracting gold before we knew better about mercury. You would crush the gold ore and then spray the gold ore with mercury and then you get a glob of the compound, get a torch and burn the mercury off since mercury has a much lower boiling level then gold and then you get pure gold..... Too bad you did the worst possible thing to the mercury, making it into vapour form. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UFObuster Posted May 25, 2007 Share Posted May 25, 2007 Also yes, gold is actually lower in rate of electron loss (be it heat, electrical, etc) then copper and silver. What is actually funny is aluminum has the best energy dispersion per weight since copper and silver weigh alot more..... but gold is used by everyone including the term every company likes to say NASA (cause it is space age) because gold is non corrosive in most instances.... Gold is one of the few elements that are found in pure solid elemental state (gold veins in rocks) and the fact that gold can be plated through electrolysis or even be hammered down to very small instances that it actually become transparent (think gold windows that actually use very very thin layer of gold to block out infrared light to prevent buildings from becoming too warm) or be used as decoration like gold leaf. There is though one way that gold can corrode, if exposed to mercury. Gold and mercury will bind together and become rather toxic for humans if they wear it. So if you have a mercury thermometer, take off you ring for if it breaks....... Also that was also a method for extracting gold before we knew better about mercury. You would crush the gold ore and then spray the gold ore with mercury and then you get a glob of the compound, get a torch and burn the mercury off since mercury has a much lower boiling level then gold and then you get pure gold..... Too bad you did the worst possible thing to the mercury, making it into vapour form. Like I said a little while ago....they should just be using Unobtainium...! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MatrixDweller Posted May 25, 2007 Share Posted May 25, 2007 I didn't mean to bash Klipsch. I am very happy with my 81's and the way they sound. I was just disappointed that my RB81's, which is flagship bookshelf speaker, didn't have better binding posts. I'm sure that the nickel plate is just fine but gold plate has become the standard on pretty much any audio component that is considered high-end, albeit sometimes just for aesthetics. The RB75 had gold plated binding posts and the RF83 and 63's do. I'm sure the added $5 in material cost would be very minimal when considering the RB81 retails for $450 each (CAD). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dkp Posted May 25, 2007 Share Posted May 25, 2007 wuzzzzeer... all correct, more of a European thing of using two wires..... Klipsch does NOT reccomend bi amping their spakers under any circumstance.. (I am not speaking for them... we have just talked about this 1000 times on this forum.) It's interesting to read that, Indy, as I can recall a conversation with one of the Klipsch techies recommending that I try bi-amping. I researched the topic a bit and came to the conclusion that there really was not much to be gained by bi-amping. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay481985 Posted May 25, 2007 Share Posted May 25, 2007 I didn't mean to bash Klipsch. I am very happy with my 81's and the way they sound. I was just disappointed that my RB81's, which is flagship bookshelf speaker, didn't have better binding posts. I'm sure that the nickel plate is just fine but gold plate has become the standard on pretty much any audio component that is considered high-end, albeit sometimes just for aesthetics. The RB75 had gold plated binding posts and the RF83 and 63's do. I'm sure the added $5 in material cost would be very minimal when considering the RB81 retails for $450 each (CAD). the rf-83 and 63 do not also? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mas Posted May 25, 2007 Share Posted May 25, 2007 Also yes, gold is actually lower in rate of electron loss (be it heat, electrical, etc) then copper and silver. What is actually funny is aluminum has the best energy dispersion per weight since copper and silver weigh alot more..... but gold is used by everyone including the term every company likes to say NASA (cause it is space age) because gold is non corrosive in most instances.... This has to be one of the strangest ways to express a concept that I have heard in a long time. So heat, electrical conductivity, etc. is a result of "electron loss"!? And "energy dispersion"... methinks the term "energy" is used just a "bit" too broadly here! For any of these concepts to be valid, you need to make a radical restriction of your frames of reference and to define much more closely exactly what "energy" you are talking about! Oh, and just where do all of those "lost electrons" go? I think we have just accounted for the lost mass of the universe! Can we say 'dark matter'? Sorry, too many quantum classes...simply couldn't resist! [] The fact is, gold is shiny, has an exotic reputation (of course its worth more than those plain old copper connections!), and it doesn't corrode as easily. Great if you are using it in a highly corrosive environment where you cannot access the connections. (Oh, and BTW, space is an extremely corrosive environment primarily due to the outgassing of silicone components and of the presence of atomic oxygen in the upper atmosphere...) And ignoring the space cadets for our example, just how many environments does that include on earth, let alone in any listening room you might own!? Its a solution looking for a problem that for the most part doesn't exist except in many people's minds and marketing brochures! Just remember, the IBM RS/6000 SP series supercomputers use plain old copper! And they could justify using molecularly deposited salamander livers (or spleens, for that matter) on a platinum substrate laced with tangerine peels if it was shown to make an appreciable difference in the bit error rate of the data flow. Bottomline: they use plain old copper. Gee, maybe for marketing purposes they need to go with gold interconnects! The upside is that these fantastic claims do little more than harm your pocket book. Watch out folks, entropy will catch us much faster than you ever imagined! (I'm losing electrons! I'm losing electrons!) [] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BLSamuel Posted May 25, 2007 Share Posted May 25, 2007 So the real reason to get gold binding posts and speaker connectors is because they look pretty. Might be worth an extra $5 or $10 but probably best spent on some Caig Laboratories Pro Gold ... So, any advantages of gold plating on connections used outside? Sounds like another good use for Pro Gold. Pro Gold does wonders for cleaning up noisy volume controls, preceded by de-oxit for really noisy volume controls... Didn't take rants as Klipsch bashing, just a lttle disappointed as older models had gold plating. And may be the "flagship" of that line ... but I'll always associate Klipsch flagship as fully horn loaded, including the BASS (no stinkin subwoofer required and probably only a Klipsch that could even begin to keep up with the bad boys) and the really number one reason to have gold plated binding posts and jumpers ... the WAF - gold is pretty, my wife likes gold, see honey, it's got pretty gold plated doo hickies to hook the wires to (and no, most wives aren't that audio illiterate, they just pretend to be to build up our fragile male egos and dtel's wife seems to be as fanatical about awesome sound as dtel - if it's something in the water, could you send me some? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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